TORONTO — The BlackBerry 10 launch is over. But for Ottawa’s QNX Software Systems Inc., the work that went into the new line of smartphones is just the start.

The subsidiary of Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion Inc. — best known as RIM but now renaming itself BlackBerry to align with its signature product — is responsible for the operating system at the heart of the phones the parent company hopes can restore BlackBerry as an industry leader.

At much-watched events in New York, Toronto and other cities, RIM unveiled the Z10 touchscreen model that goes on sale on Thursday in Britain and on Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Canada, where it will be available for $149 on a three-year contract. It will be launched in the U.S. in March.

Coming later is the Z10 phone with the physical keyboard that has been a hallmark of earlier BlackBerries.

QNX employees, of whom many cancelled vacations and worked long hours to make BB10 a reality, cheered the introduction of the device Wednesday morning from the Ernst & Young Centre near the Ottawa International Airport. RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins, in a speech delivered by satellite video link, made a point of singling out the QNX workers and thanking them for work he said was crucial to the new products.

QNX’s vice-president of engineering, Sebastien Marineau-Mes, called the event the perfect end to an “intense” couple of years.

“There is no doubt that it’s been a lot of hard work. New operating systems are not created every year,” he said. “But building a new platform is exciting … and having an event of this magnitude is what every engineer dreams about.”

BlackBerry activity at QNX will step up even more, Marineau-Mes predicted, as the new operating system is adapted for future products.

QNX just released its new Car 2 operating system, which is based on the BB10 system and brings BlackBerry’s software to automobiles around the world. Today, QNX software is used in more than 60 per cent of all cars sold with in-car infotainment systems — the entertainment systems with touch screens and the ability to play movies and access the Internet.

RIM’s Heins has said that QNX’s market-leading position in the auto segment will play a key role in licensing the company’s software to other hardware makers in need of an operating system.

The new phones will run multiple applications simultaneously in what Heins called an “entirely new way of thinking on a new platform.”

BlackBerry aims to differentiate itself with multi-tasking features it claims are far ahead of competing offerings, such as Apple’s iPhone and the phones from Samsung and others that use Google’s Android operating system. Among them is a new “Hub” that collects all of the user’s social media, email and messaging contacts in one application, allowing people to stay in touch with family, friends and work colleagues wherever they may be.

A much-anticipated feature separates work and personal applications so users won’t need to carry two devices. The division will allow the phone to operate securely for business communications — one of BlackBerry’s early strengths — while running the games, social media and other applications that users so like to install.

The phone has an eight-megapixel camera, equipped as expected with “Time Shift” technology that lets people rewind and fast-forward through images to erase the second a person blinked and create the perfect picture.

After several delays and months of intense scrutiny in the lead-up to the launch, most of the new features were already well known. But RIM still managed to surprise the world with the name change in which it ditches a moniker that has become associated with hubris, delay and plummeting share prices. The company said it was making the switch to reflect its focus on its core product.

Still, some analysts questioned whether new corporate name or not, the phones are enough to win back the mobile crown for a company that largely invented the smartphone.

Adam Leach, principal analyst at researcher Ovum, said that while the phones are impressive and will instantly appeal to BlackBerry’s 80 million existing users, the real challenge for BlackBerry will be in winning back consumer interest.

He predicted, “the company will struggle to appeal to a wider audience and in the long-term will become a niche player in the smartphone market.”

The market appeared to agree. RIM shares, which had been climbing in recent weeks after a 52-week low of $6.10, fell 12 per cent Wednesday on the TSX, closing at $13.86.

But RIM, which has an Ottawa research and development operation along with its QNX subsidiary, has $2.9 billion in cash in the bank and a broad user base, particularly in Africa and Asia.

Both will help as Heins, named CEO after the departure of dual chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, continues with an effort that is as much rebuilding as rebranding — and one that promises to keep the Ottawa employees of QNX and RIM, now BlackBerry, fully occupied.